Ugly Pittsburghers, 1974
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Following recent anti-gay tirades by major sports figures and the coming-out-of-the-closet of Phoenix Suns President Rick Welts, commentator Frank Deford pointed out on NPR the other day that even now, in 2011, no active, big-time male athlete has revealed he's gay. Mr. Deford wondered what might happen if one did:
"If a prominent American player did come out, and you were in a stadium or arena when he played against your home team, and a fan near you -- holding yet another beer on high -- began screaming, 'Hey, you dirty blank-blank!," what do you think would happen? Do you think the other fans would laugh and hoot, too? Would maybe even a chant start: 'Frankie is a blank-blank!'
"Or would the fans around the guy screaming anti-gay rants tell him to shut up? Might someone actually confront him personally? Might, in counterpoint, some fans even start to cheer the visiting gay athlete?
"If you think the latter, if more tolerance toward gays has come to the arena, as it has in so much else of American life, then perhaps very soon a closeted gay male team athlete will dare come out."
Mr. Deford wouldn't have had to ask these questions back in 1974 if he'd attended a particular Pittsburgh Triangles tennis match.
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My ex-wife and I loved tennis. We played as much as we could find time for. Soon after we moved back to the Pittsburgh area in late summer 1973, we joined friends at a Bridgeville bar to watch Billie Jean King defeat Bobby Riggs -- a major event for the feminist movement.
Next year came the announcement that Pittsburgh would be granted a franchise in World Team Tennis, a unique form of professional tennis involving both male and female players.
Pittsburgh's new team, the Triangles, would include some of the world's greatest professionals: Vitas Gerulaitis, Evonne Goolagong and the legendary Ken Rosewall as player-coach. Each WTT team would have one or two top players of the era, such as Chris Evert, Jimmy Connors or Billie Jean.
From the beginning, we went to almost every home match. Great seats were available for four or five dollars. There were beautiful Pittsburgh summer evenings when the Civic Arena roof was rolled back and the stars played under the stars.
We particularly were thrilled by Goolagong. Every aging jock pulled for the 40-year-old Rosewall. Gerulaitis had a large following of young men.
First Published June 19, 2011 12:00 am
